Uganda Blames Somali Islamists for Bomb That Killed 64
Survivors are seen at an Ethiopian-owned restaurant in the Kabalagala area of Kampala late on July 11, 2010 moments after twin bomb blasts tore through crowds of football fans watching the World Cup final, killing 64 people, including an American, and wounding scores others. Photographer: AFP/Getty Images
At least 70 people died in the Ugandan capital, Kampala, in two bomb attacks suspected to have been carried out by Somali insurgents linked to al-Qaeda, Ugandan security officials said.
The blasts occurred at two bars where crowds were watching the soccer World Cup final, Fred Opolot, director of the Uganda Media Center, told reporters today in the city. The first blast went off at the Ethiopian Village Restaurant in the south of Kampala at 10:25 p.m. local time and the second followed at the Kyadondo Rugby club at 11:15 p.m., he said. Some of the 67 people injured later died in the hospital, James Kakooza, minister of state for health, said in a phone interview.
“According to the inspector-general of police, there is an indication it’s linked to al-Shabaab,” Felix Kulayigye, a spokesman for the Ugandan army, said in a phone interview today. “This is a terrorist act. The intention is to instill fear.”
Ugandan soldiers form part of an African Union-led peacekeeping force in Somalia, where al-Shabaab has been battling the country’s Western-backed government since 2007. The U.S. accuses al-Shabaab of having links to al-Qaeda, which has said it plans to establish an Islamic government in Somalia. Burundi also has peacekeepers in Somalia.
“Al-Shabaab has said they would attack Uganda and Burundi many times in the past because of the troops,” Rashid Abdi, a Horn of Africa analyst at the International Crisis Group, said in a phone interview today from Nairobi, the Kenyan capital. “This was just a matter of time. It was coming.”
American Killed
Ugandan President Yoweri Museveni condemned the attack and said the nation’s security forces would hunt down the perpetrators.
“We shall look for them and get them wherever they are,” Museveni told reporters today.
The Ugandan shilling weakened 0.5 percent to 2,275 against the U.S. dollar, the weakest level since July 2.
An American citizen was among those killed in the explosions, Joann Lockard, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Embassy in Kampala, said in a phone interview.
“There were Americans injured, but I don’t have any details,” she said. More information will be released later today, Lockard said.
Condemnation
“I join President Obama in strongly condemning today’s attacks in Kampala, Uganda targeting innocent spectators watching the World Cup final,” U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in a statement on the State Department’s website. “We have a long-standing, close friendship with the people and government of Uganda and will work with them to bring the perpetrators of this crime to justice.”
Ethiopia’s government said it was trying to establish whether any of its citizens were killed in the blasts. U.S.- backed Ethiopian forces invaded Somalia in December 2006 to oust the Islamist government that had captured southern Somalia. They withdrew in January 2009.
“There have been no recent threats specifically in Ethiopia, but we know the Somali groups have said they will launch attacks on peacekeeper nations,” Ethiopian Communications Minister Bereket Simon said in an interview from Addis Ababa. “Such cowardly acts take place at times of lax security, but in Ethiopia we have been preparing ourselves to get rid of this possibility.”
Attack Welcomed
Sheikh Abdikarim Abdulahi Yusuf, an al-Shabaab leader contacted on his mobile phone in Mogadishu, the Somali capital, said he wasn’t authorized to comment on the blasts, though he welcomed the attack.
“I am not sure who is responsible, but it is my pleasure to hear such a story,” he said.
Uganda has 2,700 soldiers in Somalia and Burundi has 2,550, according to the website of the Francophone Research Network on Peace Operations.
The leader of al-Shabaab, known as Abu-Zubeyr, last week threatened to take revenge on Ugandan and Burundi citizens for the deaths of civilians in Somalia.
“Uganda and Burundi’s populations will be held accountable for the ongoing massacre in Mogadishu that left many children, teenagers, women and old people dead,” Abu-Zubeyr said in an audio tape distributed to reporters on July 4.
Expanded Force
Last week, the Inter-Governmental Authority on Development, a Djibouti-based body that groups six East African countries, called for the peacekeeping mission in Somalia to deploy an additional 2,000 soldiers to help the government battle “extremist groups.”
Yesterday’s attacks “could be a message to frontline states -- Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia and also including Burundi -- that enhanced military intervention will be met with these kinds of attacks,” Abdi said.
Uganda, with a population of more than 30 million people and an economy of $16.4 billion, will begin commercial production of oil next year when Tullow Oil Plc starts output at its Kasamene field. Tullow, based in London, said in an e-mailed statement that none of its operations had been affected by the blasts, though the company’s Kampala-based staff were advised to remain at home today.
The East African nation, about the size of the U.S. state of Oregon, is the continent’s biggest exporter of robusta coffee.
To contact the reporters on this story: Fred Ojambo in Kampala via Johannesburg at pmrichardson@bloomberg.net; Sarah McGregor in Nairobi at smcgregor5@bloomberg.net.
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